Endgame: S.F. police shut down sidewalk chess

Marvin Boykins, sitting on Market Street between Fifth and Sixth, is the last sign of street chess in downtown San Francisco. Boykins, 57, learned to play chess when he was 7 years old.

Marvin Boykins, sitting on Market Street between Fifth and Sixth, is the last sign of street chess in downtown San Francisco. Boykins, 57, learned to play chess when he was 7 years old.

Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle

Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle

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Marvin Boykins, sitting on Market Street between Fifth and Sixth, is the last sign of street chess in downtown San Francisco. Boykins, 57, learned to play chess when he was 7 years old.

Marvin Boykins, sitting on Market Street between Fifth and Sixth, is the last sign of street chess in downtown San Francisco. Boykins, 57, learned to play chess when he was 7 years old.

Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle

Endgame: S.F. police shut down sidewalk chess

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Street chess, that institution of young, old, rich and poor mentally duking it out over a checkered board in the open air, thrives downtown in nearly every big city of America - except, now, San Francisco.

For more than 30 years, chess games have been a staple near Fifth and Market streets, but earlier this month, the San Francisco Police Department confiscated the playing equipment, chairs and tables from where dozens of people, mostly homeless, would gather every day to play.

Police said that regular chess players weren't the problem but that the area had become a hotbed for illegal gambling and drug use.

"It's turned into a big public nuisance," said Capt. Michael Redmond, contending that complaints from nearby businesses and arrests for sale and possession of narcotics have increased over the past six months. "I think maybe it's a disguise for some other things that are going on."

On Tuesday afternoon, the only sign of street chess was at the feet of Marvin Boykins, 57. Across from his latex chessboard, a friend moved chess pieces at the command of a smartphone computer game set at the grandmaster level, which Boykins refused to listen to after it warned him that he'd made a bad move.

"I've been playing since I was 7 or 8 years old," said Boykins, who has been playing at the spot for decades. "Chess is a true San Francisco tradition."

His friend, Hector Torres Jr., said chess saved him from a gambling addiction when he moved to San Francisco from Las Vegas more than 20 years ago. He said the chess games are a discrimination-free zone that has welcomed everyone including San Francisco Giants players, millionaires and people who have been in prison for decades.

"They're being mean for no reason," Torres Jr., 42, said about the police. "To me, it's a scapegoat."

Decades of history

Pinpointing exactly how the games began on Mid-Market is difficult, but what is clear is that they have been a fixture since at least the early 1980s.

The people supplying the tables, and the rules for play, changed periodically, but the basic premise was always the same: A steady core of chess devotees, many of them homeless, sat at the tables all day, and pretty much anyone who wanted to play could take a seat.

Sometimes the winner won $1, other times it was just a straight fee to play. At one time in the early 2000s the players who ran the tables charged 50 cents for three games. Boykins charges $2 for people to rent one of his boards.

The tables were sometimes supplied by avid players with homes and sometimes by homeless people - one penniless man in the mid-2000s dragged them there every morning from his storage place south of Market Street.

San Francisco resident Vivian Imperiale, walking down Market Street on Tuesday, said she saw police officers telling chess players a few weeks ago to get rid of their equipment.

Businesses relieved

"I was walking out here and I was thinking 'how charming,' although I think there's money involved - it's probably not all squeaky clean," she said. "It seemed innocent."

But employees at several nearby businesses said they were relieved the tables are gone.

"It's an excuse for illegal activity - period," said Dimitri Madrid, manager at Beauty Supply and Hair Salon, which has sent four letters to Mayor Ed Lee complaining about drug and alcohol use, violence and barbecuing that has taken place by the tables.

Now that the tables and crowds are gone, Madrid says he no longer sees people walking by with their purses clutched tightly in their arms, or just crossing to the other side of the street.

"It's like night and day," he said. "Sales have been up."

At CeX, an electronic entertainment exchange, people have come in and asked where the chess went, said Ryan K., a store manager who didn't want to give his last name.

"Since it's been gone, it's been a lot quieter," he said, adding that he thought that was an improvement.

Not the last move

Ryan said police had reached out to businesses, asking if the chess tables were creating problems. He said drug use was commonplace and customers were calling to say they weren't coming back to the store.

"Having activities for folks to do is a positive thing," she said. "We have elderly people who are very isolated, and this is a great way for them to be out in the community."

Redmond said the players' property will eventually be released back to them and he hopes to work out a plan for chess in the future - but that may involve persuading a business to pay for a permit so games can be played on the sidewalk.